Category advertising
[Appearing in Broadcasting & Cable] – Advanced TV Ad Targeting: Separating the Wheat From the Chaff
I wrote this piece on Advanced TV advertising, which published in Broadcasting & Cable today (February 26, 2018). If you’ve heard about Advanced TV and want to learn more, or if you’re just getting started, I hope you find it useful. ***** You probably read the trades and know that you can now use rich […]
Quantifying The Value Of PR: An Approach For Data-Driven Marketers
The first step to demand creation often requires investing in hard-to-measure marketing tactics. Unlike bottom-of-funnel metrics, e.g. customer acquisition, knowing how well top-of-funnel activities work requires relying on metrics that I’ve never found very satisfying. They include aided or unaided awareness, ad recall, and reach and frequency. Public relations, or PR, falls in this hard-to-measure category. In […]
Avoiding The Career Obsolescence Trap
Four years ago, I had a conversation about career obsolescence I’ll never forget. I was catching up with a friend and former colleague who had left her job at an advertising agency around 2008 to be a stay-at-home mom. This woman is the best account director I’ve ever known. She is tough, comfortable defending her […]
Small Data Points Signal Huge Changes Ahead
For over seven years, I worked in marketing for a video game publisher. There was no part of the job I looked forward to doing more than producing TV commercials. There was one aspect of this work that tied my stomach up in knots, though: pitching the idea for the commercial to my company’s CEO. Not […]
Why NPR-esque User Donations Aren’t Likely To Pay The Bills For Digital Publishers
A few times every year, I’ll meet someone who decries all forms of advertising, especially the digital variety. These objectors tend to concentrate their ire on the data gathering and targeting behind digital ads, but that’s not their only concern. They also find ads on their favorite apps and websites a burdensome distraction. Since I work for a […]
Why Even The Best Performing Marketing Campaigns On Facebook Falter
In addition to being perfectly content to watch reruns of my favorite TV shows (I’m looking at you, Big Bang Theory on TBS), I also can watch my favorite TV commercials again and again. For example, I love AT&T’s “Bedazzling” spot. I laugh out loud every time I see it, which is often because it […]
This Device Quietly Outnumbers Smartphones And Attracts More Ad Dollars, And Yet The Mobile Economy Must Avoid Its Fate.
Today, the world’s population enjoys nearly universal access to a particular device that drives massive levels of engagement and commerce. Let’s see if you can guess what it is. As of 2011, on average there were 2.2 of these devices per capita in the industrialized world. Worldwide, 4 billion of these existed as of 2011, meaning […]
A Simple Way To Get Better Creative
Think for a moment about the best TV ad you’ve ever seen. (In a nod to the season, here’s mine.) Now ask yourself: how did that happen? It probably didn’t come as a result of a creative genius at an agency or the inspired vision of a hard-driving CMO. Instead, it probably was a result of someone […]
